The rapid growth of the non-fungible token (NFT) market has produced profiteers of all stripes - unfortunately also fraudsters who take advantage of the often rather limited IT knowledge of many players in the NFT field in order to access their assets with sophisticated fraud scenarios. Social media such as Instagram, Facebook, etc. not only serve as welcome platforms, e.g. for artists, to quickly make their own works known to many potential customers. They offer fraudsters the chance - free of charge and almost unlimited - to use a fraud scenario once they have been developed almost as often as they like - until the fraud method has become so well known that the reduced number of possible victims is no longer attractive.
In July of this year, we covered common NFT scam practices in our NFT scams post, but these scenarios are evolving too, so we occasionally embark on a scam to learn new practices that we expose our readers to then be able to warn. In the following we present a current dialogue with an Instagram NFT scammer who, despite all his meanness, also offers something to smile about:
axelfarley.nft
Hello. Saw your post for an NFT for sale on nft marketplace. Can I find out if it's still available?
So, 15:46
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
Thank you for your interest and, yes it is.
axelfarley.nft
can i have the link of your opensea?
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
Sure. Here we are: https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x134a52b190e24d75b839f7b03a476bd4eb7460b4/19
opensea.io
axelfarley.nft
Thanks! It's funny, I don't usually get so excited about art. But NFT is really something special, and it's great that the fine art world is becoming more accessible thanks to blockchain technology.
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
Thats true and the future will show which type of art will survive on the blockchains as this fascinating technology has also led to a strong proliferation of "quick-and-dirty-art" However, thank you for your interest.
So, 18:00
axelfarley.nft
Also, this is very interesting work - I love that you captured the essence of modernity so elegantly! It's very impressive! I'd like to talk more about the idea behind your collection. What was your motive? What were you thinking about when you were making it? I would love to hear about it!
So, 19:28
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
Thank you very much for your kind words! Maybe you could do me a favour? I am just studying the different SCAM approaches in the NFT field. Would you be prepared to answer some questions of my questionaire?
So, 21:28
axelfarley.nft
sure
So, 21:48
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
Great! Thank you very much indeed!
1st Where and how get scammer their texts i.e. Also, this is very interesting work - I love that you captured the essence of modernity so elegantly! It's very impressive! I'd like to talk more about the idea behind your collection. What was your motive? What were you thinking about when you were making it? I would love to hear about it!
I have now received this text from various sources and am wondering who originally created it?
axelfarley.nft
i actually don’t know about that
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
2nd How scammers find their victims - is it simply the #nft in postings?
axelfarley.nft
i dont know about that
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
3rd Do scammers know how many of their victims commit suicide once they lose what little money they have, e.g. artists?
axelfarley.nft
i dont know. im not a scammer so i dont know
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
4th Can you guess how many scammers ended up getting caught because they messed with the wrong person?
So, 22:33
axelfarley.nft
no
Heute um 10:15
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff
5th Can you imagine NFT scammers knowing that their identities can easily be discovered by IT professionals as low as level 8 even if they are hiding behind anonymous Instagram profiles?
Heute um 10:32
axelfarley.nft
FUCK YOU
Fotoarchiv Tenckhoff:
Congratulations, you have reached level 5. Delete your profile immediately, otherwise ....
That ended the dialogue in a rather rude manner, but just a few seconds later, the scammer deleted his axelfarley.nft profile on Instagram. He hadn't even realized at the beginning of the dialogue that I had given him his own first text as a multiple NFT scam for evaluation. At least this fraud profile no longer exists and the fraudster will have to spend some time creating a new one.
Also a warning for all artists:
If you are addressed by someone on Instagram etc. with this text:
Also, this is very interesting work - I love that you captured the essence of modernity so elegantly! It's very impressive! I'd like to talk more about the idea behind your collection. What was your motive? What were you thinking about when you were making it? I would love to hear about it!
It's a scam attempt!
If you have already been addressed with this text, please write it as a comment on this post - this way you can help other artists.
From the many letters that I receive on this subject, the Allgäu artist Otto Frühwach, who meticulously documented the fraud methods he was exposed to, should have his say at this point:
"From my experience so far, fraud can be divided into three areas:
1. The scammer agrees with the Opensea marketplace. However, he then does not make a purchase or bid, but sends the seller of the NFT fake screenshots of Opensea Support which state that e.g. the payment of 52 thousand dollars cannot be completed as long as the buyer does not pay a gas fee of 500 dollars paid. Sometimes you are put under a lot of pressure "You stole my money, I want my money back immediately, where are my 52,000 dollars? I'm going to the police, I'll report you, I'll finish you off!" Weak minds might well give in to that.
2. The scammer rejects the Opensea marketplace with the argument that a lot of money was stolen from him there or that he had bought NFTs for 20 thousand dollars, for example, but never received them and his money was gone.
In fact, around 250 NFTs worth millions were stolen at Opensea at the end of 2022. The scammers are now taking advantage of this fact to reject the Opensea marketplace and lure the artist onto a small platform that is either already fraudulently designed or at least allows fraud. This type of fraud not only rejects Opensea, but also other "serious" (you never know for sure) platforms such as makersplace, Rarible, KnownOrigin or SuperRare.
3. The scammer claims that he cannot buy if the seller uses a Metamask wallet as it would not transmit the signals he needs to resell (which of course is utter nonsense) and one should get a Trustwallet increase NFTs and money are then stolen from this, because the name component "Trust" is pure mockery.
4. Anything else is also scam such as claiming to buy the physical artwork, commissioned work like portraits of the family or the dog, any form of promotion and helping the artist to sell art. All of this ends with the artist losing his money." Otto Frühwach, email dated August 22, 2023.
Artist Frühwach also added "warning signs" to his Instagram account to discourage scammers. These are published below with his kind permission (pictures 3 to 6).
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